Surveys show Polish public opinion has rapidly shifted from wariness about hosting the US missile shield to outright enthusiasm. The reason is simple. Russia conducted a devastating counterattack against Georgia this month, and Poles are convinced the time for treading softly around the Russian bear has passed.

Every Polish family has a compelling story about its role in history: stories of war, rebellion and defiance. By comparison to the average Brit, the average Pole is obsessed with the past and how it shapes the present.

The first wave of Polish immigration to the UK took place at the end of the second world war, when an estimated 200,000 Poles were given British citizenship, one way or another, because of Kremlin foreign policy.

Many had been deported by Russian troops from eastern Poland to Siberian concentration camps when the Nazis and Soviets were allied with each other at the start of the war. When the Soviets changed sides and allied with the British, the Poles were released and formed the "Anders army", which trekked from Siberia to Iran to join the British army for the north Africa and Italy campaigns.

These Polish war veterans couldn't return to their country at the end of the war, because it had been taken by Stalin at Yalta. Those naive enough to return faced imprisonment or death. The rest formed the Polish communities in Hammersmith, Ealing and elsewhere, that have given hope to Polish migrants ever since.

So most Polish people, especially members of the Polish British community, relate to the subjects of history and international relations in a deeply personal way. My grandfather served in the Polish army that defeated the Soviet invasion of Europe 1920. My father lived through the 1944 Warsaw uprising, in which the Red Army stood by and watched Nazis massacre the inhabitants of the city. I have childhood memories of Poland in the 1970s and 1980s. We would talk subversively in the home, but knew not to breathe a word of it on the telephone or on the street, all because of the Kremlin's might.

This said, neither I nor most people with Polish roots, including those whose families were deported to Siberia, have any dislike of Russian people. Quite the contrary, Poles love the Russian language, literature and music. Poles have sympathy for the Russian nation, because historically their leaders, from Ivan the Terrible to Josef Stalin have treated them even worse than they have treated the people of Poland.

Until the Georgia crisis, Poles didn't want the US missile shield. It was seen as another demonstration of Bush lunacy: a piece of kit that didn't work; a $100bn subsidy of American aerospace; a defence against an Iran that would use a terror cell with a dirty bomb before an ICBM; and a middle finger to a Kremlin that will take any pretext to whip up Russian nationalism to distract from its own failings.

But now, the 10 interceptor missiles headed for Poland have real power – and that power is symbolic rather than tactical. With American boots and hardware on the ground in their country, Poles feel that they cannot be let down in the way they have been so many times before. The Kremlin's recent behavior, and long memories in this part of the world, makes Poles want that certainty.